Cuba Gooding, Jr. Opens Up About Playing O.J. Simpson & Whether Or Not He Believes He’s Guilty

Does Cuba think he did it?

For the past two weeks, we’ve been tuning into American Crime Story to watch The People v. O.J. Simpson and we must say, FX has not disappointed on any account.

In the retelling of one of the most bizarre criminal trials to ever go down on American soil, we get a peek into who the “Juice” was at the time of his ex-wife’s murder, in addition to a glimpse at the state of America and how police politics eventually played right into O.J.’s exoneration.

In the mini-series, O.J. is played by Cuba Gooding, Jr. – so naturally many are interested in the actor’s take on the trial. The 48-year-old tells E! that while he turned down a previous offer to play O.J. prior to the American Crime Story project, he then “immediately said yes when his agent called and said he was being offered a Ryan Murphy project.”

On accepting Ryan Murphy’s offer:

“I’m at that age in my career, or experience level, where I don’t worry about the scripts as much anymore as I do the filmmaking team, the director. When my agents called and said Ryan Murphy wants to meet with you, I said, ‘Great! Tell him I’m in!’”

On why he didn’t want to meet O.J. before the project was done:

“I played him when he was at his most flamboyant and charismatic,” Gooding explains. “And he’s just a shell of himself now, sitting in a jail cell.”

But now, if Simpson were up for it? “Yeah. I mean, now. I’ve finished the character. The character’s locked away, so I would do it.”

On whether or not he believes O.J. is guilty:

“If we did our job right, people will understand how they came up with that verdict based on incompetence on many different levels. And I hope even in that statement, I hope you don’t think that I think he’s guilty or innocent.”

Cuba likes to leave a little mystery.

Get into it if you haven’t already – not only is the show good, it’s pretty accurate. Every week, Rolling Stone compares the TV version to its source material, The Run of His Life by Jeffrey Toobin. Here’s what the publication said about the accuracy of some of the most interesting and important details from episode 2.

The suicide note:

As O.J. and A.C. went on the run, Robert Kardashian took the podium at the defense’s June 17th press conference to read what seemed to be a suicide note from Orenthal James Simpson. “First, everyone understand I had nothing to do with Nicole’s murder,” Kardashian read. But what he had written was much more ambiguous: “First everyone understand nothing to do with Nicole’s murder.” The opening seemed to be written under extreme duress — that, or Simpson was nearly illiterate. So Kardashian edited the note as he went along, potentially changing its meaning and certainly obfuscating the man’s desperation.

It was actually signed, as the series acknowledges, with a morbid smiley face for the “O” in his name. But the show plays into a misconception: Robert Shapiro suggested during the press conference that the letter had been written that day, and Kardashian doesn’t correct that. In the first episode, the attorney discovers O.J. penning both a will and his final words just hours before he goes on the run. In reality, the note was dated June 15th, 1994 — two days earlier, a fact that Kardashian also edited out. As Toobin points out in his book, if Kardashian admitted that his friend had written this some time before, he might have also let on that Simpson was considering breaking his agreement to surrender. “By leaving out the date, Kardashian avoided uncomfortable questions about his own role in O.J.’s disappearance.”

As far as a young Kim spelling her last name and the rest of the Kardashian children chanting it to the TV, one can only hope this is true. (3/5 Gloves)

Domino’s Pizza had its best day ever:

The chase lasted roughly two hours — cops started pursuit at about 6pm and he reached his home around 8pm. In the meantime, Los Angeles came to a halt. Not only was the 405 shut down—”The backup on Sepulveda must be unbelievable,” one D.A. staffer notes on the show — but people were rapt, unable to take their eyes off the white car. There’s a brief scene in a chain pizza restaurant in which workers are scrambling to fill dozens of orders and are running out of cheese, a seemingly odd detail to include in a show about a high-profile murder. But in fact, the day of the chase was Domino’s best day to date. “We benefited from the fact that it was essentially ‘dinner time’ on the West Coast and late evening on the East Coast,” the franchise’s VP Tim McIntyre told Business Insider. “People were so enthralled by the bizarre nature of what was happening, they didn’t want to miss a moment.” Bad day for the Juice, great day for pizza. (5/5 Gloves)

Head over to Rolling Stone to read their fact-checking recap in full. ACS airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.

1. Floyd Mayweather: The world boxing champion has a long history of domestic abuse. Over the years, Mayweather has been linked to seven physical assaults on five different women. After beating his kids' mother, the 37-year-old was sentenced to 87 days in prison but only spent two months behind bars.

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2. Charlie Sheen: His tiger blood hasn't stopped him from getting into trouble with the law. With his long history of repeatedly assaulting women, Charlie accidentally shot Kelly Preston in 1990, threatened to kill Denise Richards in 2006, and was arrested in 2010 for abusing his ex-wife Brooke Mueller on Christmas Day among other incidents.

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3. Bill Cosby: Since 2005, over a dozen women have alleged that Bill Cosby drugged and then sexually assaulted them. With the allegations getting media attention again, the first supermodel ever, Janice Dickinson, has also come forward to reveal the "Cosby Show" actor raped her in 1982.

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4. Michael Jackson: Throughout his career, the King of Pop was accused of molesting young boys several times. After he died, it was discovered that Michael spent over $35 million covering up the alleged molestation of 24 boys.

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5. Martin Lawrence: Leading man in one of the best comedy series ever, Martin's co-star Tisha Campbell left the show "Martin" in 1997, citing sexual harassment, sexual battery, verbal abuse, and threats from Martin. To make matters worse, Tisha recently revealed she was a victim of rape at just 3-years-old.

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6. Terry Richardson: The man on the other side of the lens has been labeled a sexual predator by more than a few women. Multiple models have claimed Richardson requested sexual favors during shoots, and the heinous accusations stretch all the way back to 2005.

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7. Joe Budden: Joe has supposedly beaten up so many of his girlfriends, it's become hard to keep track of it all. In perhaps what was one of the most brutal accusations made by an ex, Esther Baxter claimed Joe killed their unborn child after he sat on her, pulled her off a bed while pregnant, choked her, and more. Joe Budden admits the altercation happened, but swears by a different version.

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8. Woody Allen: The famed director reportedly sexually abused his 7-year-old adopted daughter Dylan Farrow. Allen refused to take a polygraph test administered by state police, and the young girl's claims were found to be consistent with the testimony of three adults who were around the same day the abuse happened.

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9. R. Kelly: The 47-year-old songwriter has a long history of dealing with underage girls. When he was 27, he married 15-year-old Aaliyah, he has been seen on video having sex with underage girls, and we all remember the lewd act he performed on a young girl, urinating into her mouth on tape.

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10. James Brown: James Brown has not only been arrested for armed robbery, in the early 2000s he was sued by a woman who claimed it was Brown's fault she suffered from Graves' disease, as he allegedly raped her at gunpoint in 1988.

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11. Kobe Bryant: The LA Laker was the center of a lot of negative attention in 2003, when a 19-year-old hotel employee accused the basketball player of raping her. Though Kobe admitted to having sex with her - and remember, he was married at the time - he denies it was rape.

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12. Sean Penn: The famed actor is not only known for his ability to meaningfully portray a character, he's also known for tying up ex-wife Madonna and beating her bloody. She escaped when she told her husband of the time she had to use the bathroom.

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13. Marv Albert: In 1997, the beloved Sportscaster plead guilty to sexual assault and battery of a longtime lover, who claimed that he repeatedly bit her and forced her to perform oral sex on him. She claimed she was only able to escape after ripping his toupee off of his head.

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Continue reading 13 Celebrity Men Who’ve Been Accused Of Heinous Crimes But Are Still Idolized

13 Celebrity Men Who've Been Accused Of Heinous Crimes But Are Still Idolized